Local ICT industry leaders said that while there were many helpful proposals in Malaysia Budget 2017, tabled by Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday 21 October 2016, some questioned whether the allocations for the ICT industry go far enough to continue the drive to the high-income developed nation status goal by the year 2020.

Themed 'Ensuring Unity and Economic Growth, Inclusive Prudent Spending, Wellbeing of the Rakyat (people),' Najib said a government allocation of RM260.8 billion (US$62.4 billion) for the year's Budget, an increase of 3.4 per cent from 2016, from which RM5.3 billion (US$1.27 billion) will need to go to security.

Due to the recent fall in oil prices, the government has lost RM30 billion (US$7.17 billion) in revenue. However the prime minister called Malaysia an 'upper-middle income' country,' adding: "We are now on the right track, as we have and are taking firm, bold and right decisions despite the measures being unpopular. We have laid strong foundations for the country's long-term financial and economic position."

"We commit to ensuring that the economic fundamentals of the nation remain resilient and strong - including policy on deficit targets, spurred economic activity and the long-term health of the financial system," he said.

Najib added that the 2017 revenue collection will be increased at about 3 per cent to RM219.7 billion (US$52.50 billion) and he envisioned a fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product.

GST (goods and services tax) rate will not be adjusted, which has raised almost RM30 billion (US$7.7 billion) as of Oct 19, 2016, he said.

Industry comments

Here are some industry comments to Computerworld Malaysia about Budget 2017 from MDEC, PIKOM, Gartner, iMoney, Cisco, Symantec, Microsoft, CA Technologies, Autodesk, Canvas Instructure, and Uber. This feature, which was first published 22 October 2016 and updated on 3 November 2016 with fresh comments from CyberSecurity Malaysia, MaGIC and VMware. A fresh, final update has been added 20 Novermber 2016 with a statement from IDC Asean at the end of this feature.